


The Annual Wilson-Barnes Pumpkin Carve-Off

by fluffysocks



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Halloween, M/M, Pumpkin carving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 11:36:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21252761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffysocks/pseuds/fluffysocks
Summary: He still hadn’t quite figured it out. It was possible that the Annual Wilson-Barnes Pumpkin Carve-Off was the reason Bucky and Sam’s bickering never actually devolved into them coming to blows. But if he was pushed, Steve would bet money on it just being a very Sam and Bucky specific way of coming to blows.





	The Annual Wilson-Barnes Pumpkin Carve-Off

Steve slouched down in one of the kitchen chairs and watched as Sam assembled the pieces of his kit. He was checking them with the same care and attention he gave his wings. Right now, he was holding up a tiny poky thing that kind of looked like a serrated scalpel, frowning at it and turning it this way and that under the light - he was giving it a thoughtful look, testing that the blade was still firmly attached to the handle with a gentle push on the blunt side of it.

He looked great - his hair was always beautiful, but it looked extra good today. Sam had been at the barbershop the day before, and was wearing one of his needlessly soft and drapey long sleeved tees now. Steve kind of wanted to swipe all the tools off the table and put Sam on there instead, but he knew it would land him in the dog house.

Steve leaned forward, propping his chin on his hand to hide his grin. “I’m sure Buck has every kind of knifey thing you could want at his place,” he offered.

“Don’t you even start,” Sam muttered, swapping the thing he had been holding out for an identical looking thing. “Bucky Barnes uses a napkin ring as a scooper.”

Steve remembered Buck telling him, under his breath, that a napkin ring was the perfect shape for pumpkin scooping for anyone who didn’t have weak hands. At the time, Steve had graciously not pointed out that Sam happened to have two flesh hands. Or that said flesh hands might not appreciate the kind of pressure that had fully rolled up the stiff metal edge of Bucky’s scooping tool of choice over the years of their competition.

“And besides,” Sam said. “I wouldn’t have to spend so much time choosing if you and Natasha hadn’t decided to give us an implement limit.” Sam said the last part in a disturbingly accurate rendition of Natasha’s annoyed, raspy tone when she discovered that Sam and Bucky had somehow gotten pumpkin guts stuck in her AC unit.

“I mean, fifteen tools seems like a lot to carve a picture into a pumpkin.” Steve said. He still hadn’t quite figured it out. It was possible that the Annual Wilson-Barnes Pumpkin Carve-Off was the reason Bucky and Sam’s bickering never actually devolved into them coming to blows. But if he was pushed, Steve would bet money on it just being a very Sam and Bucky specific way of coming to blows.

Sam did an elaborate eyebrow thing that told Steve in no uncertain terms that he knew nothing about pumpkins and the carving thereof.

Steve leaned over the table to press a kiss right against Sam’s frown, and Sam batted at him with a half-hearted annoyed noise but melted a little when Steve angled lower for a proper kiss. “It’s just hard to pick without knowing what pumpkin exactly I’ll have,” Sam allowed, tone slightly mollified.

Steve sat back down and pretended that he didn’t know full well that Sam had been gone at night twice in the previous week, and that Steve had a pretty good idea of where he’d been.

* * *

Natasha physically sat down in James’s lap to stop him peeking at the pumpkin patch.

“Absolutely not, James,” she said. “If Sam sees you peeking, you two will start arguing about the rules, and then my entire flat will smell like a starbucks for all of July again.”

Bucky pouted. Not in the practiced way that was meant to get her to pay attention to his mouth, but in the way that only Sam could really get his face to scrunch up. Natasha tried very hard to find it unattractive, and she reached up to squish his cheeks.

“Our flet! Andit dinot. I tookat abart,” he protested, not letting her hands on his face stop him. She lifted them away. “And disinfected it,” he finished.

He had. And then gone to hide out on Sam and Steve’s couch for a week, all the while bribing her with wine and cookies until she grudgingly took him back. All three of them brought out the worst in each other, she decided. And also, she couldn’t have known that needling them a little about the wonky base of Bucky’s pumpkin would have that result.

“Anyway, you don’t need to cheat. You both have half an hour--” And of course someone had absconded with her S.H.I.E.L.D. night vision goggles during the week, and Sam had probably done flybys - “-- to pick a perfectly round and symmetrical and beautiful pumpkin.”

Bucky muttered something into her shoulder that sounded suspiciously like ‘Your face is beautiful.” She magnanimously didn’t call him on it, just laughed and kissed him right on his ridiculous hair swoop thing.

* * *

Sam and Steve had arrived to Neutral Ground at exactly the agreed upon time, and Bucky and Sam had both done a lot of walking around pretending like they hadn’t both had their eyes on particular pumpkins from the start.

It was probably a good thing their first choice hadn’t been the same - and that no hapless civilian had bought either of ‘their’ pumpkins in the days since their respective last recon trips. Although. Now that the Pumpkins were both sat on the drop cloth on Natasha’s and his kitchen table (something she had insisted on from the very beginning), he was kind of second guessing himself.

Sam, predictably, had pulled out all the stops for the occasion - Bucky hadn’t even bothered doing anything with his hair, but Sam was virtually glowing. His skin looked soft. When Bucky had hugged him in greeting, he’d smelled amazing. Ugh.

The cheater was probably trying to distract Bucky. Of course, Bucky only knew he’d been cheating because he had been cheating at the exact same time and spotted Sam’s shape in the sky, but that was beside the point.

It wouldn’t do any good. Bucky was really focused this year - they had decided the theme in advance, and Bucky was going to win. He’d done field research for this.

Sam gave him a Look across the pumpkins. They both had their motif tracing needles in hand already.

Steve rolled his eyes, but held up his phone. “Your hour begins …”

“Now!” Natasha chimed, jamming her finger against the screen.

For supposedly hating the Carve-Off so much, they sure seemed to be amusing themselves well enough.

* * *

At least Bucky wasn’t a sore loser.

“There’s always next year,” Sam offered. They were cuddled up on the couch, and Bucky sighed.

“I know - it’s just. That web is fully accurate to how Black Widows build them in the wild,” Bucky complained.

“Yeah, but it looks terrible.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, but he pulled Sam in for a proper kiss, slow and soft.

Sam grinned against his mouth. “And you have to admit that I really captured Capwolf.”

Bucky flopped back onto Sam’s lap, dissolving into giggles for a moment. “You did. I thought Stevie was going to sink through the floor.”

“Or that Natasha was going to die laughing,” Sam added.

Natasha had, in fact, still wheezing, carried Sam’s victorious pumpkin out front, set it up so it was visible from the entire street, and then lit it. In the other room, Steve was still trying to talk her into taking it back inside.

Sam had given his wolf self a wide open maw, many teeth, and a carefully rendered helmet so no young trick or treaters would confuse him for any old werewolf. His pumpkin was a masterpiece.

Bucky sprawled more fully onto Sam, shuffling around until he was, apparently, comfortable. Sam poked him in the shoulder. “You’re heavy.”

“Am not. Anyway, it might be a while until Steve and Nat are done. I might as well make myself at home.”

He did, however, pull at Sam’s hands so he could start massaging his palm. Sam grinned down at him, and ran his free hand through Bucky’s hair.

It wasn’t so bad, winning Halloween.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to yawpkatsi and steverogersnotebook for encouraging me! ;_;


End file.
